It's a particularly freaky Friday, with Halloween falling on every music fan's favorite morning of the week. A few artists are embracing the holiday Spirit with legitimately eerie new releases, while others are going the dad-joke route with titles cornier than the contentious candy at the bottom of your trick-or-treat bag.
Speaking of treats, there's a new surprise album by Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield and her sister, Allison, titled Snocaps, that is far better than your standard side project. And while the shock of new music by Guided By Voices wore off about two dozen albums ago, the Dayton, Ohio, legends' new album, Thick Rich and Delicious, sounds delightfully vintage.
We brought on GBV superfan and Marfa Public Radio host Julie Bee to break down the best Oct. 31 releases with New Music host Stephen Thompson. Scroll down to see our favorites, as well as every other noteworthy album to hit streaming services this week.
The Starting Five
🎵 Snocaps (Katie and Allison Crutchfield), s/t
- Recommended If You Like: Waxahatchee, Swearin'
🎵 Guided By Voices, Thick Rich and Delicious
- RIYL: Guided By Voices, The '90s
🎵 Chat Pile & Hayden Pedigo, In The Earth Again
- RIYL: Nick Cave, John Fahey
🎵 keiyaA, hooke's law
- RIYL: Nourished By Time, Tirzah
🎵 Anna von Hausswolff, Iconoclasts
- RIYL: Halloween, Kate Bush
New Music Friday is a feature of NPR's All Songs Considered podcast. Hear the discussion on the NPR App, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Lightning Round
Five more albums we wish we had time to discuss on the podcast:
⚡ Florence + The Machine, Everybody Scream
⚡ The Charlatans, We Are Love
⚡ Saintsenaca, Highwalllow & Supermoon Songs
⚡ Hilary Woods, Night CRIÚ
⚡ Lily Lyons, Re-Open The World
Listen to each album's best songs on our New Music Friday playlists on Spotify and Apple, or wherever you stream music.
The Long List
For those who want to dig even deeper, here are the week's new albums sorted by genre:
Classical
- Hildur Guðnadóttir, Where to From
- Roger Eno, Without Wind, Without Air
Rap/Hip-Hop
- Aesop Rock, I Heard It's A Mess There Too
- Armani White, There's a Ghost in My House
- Big Boogie, Pain on Paper 4
- Chuckyy, Bloodbathh Vol. 2: Violate We Demonstrate EP
- DJ Premier, The Reinvention
- Knucks, A Fine African Man
- Kodak Black, Just Getting Started
- Lil Bushwick, Lil Bushwick
- Masta Ace, Natural Forces
- MESSIAH!, Janky Idol
- Offset, Haunted by Fame
- OutKast, Stankonia: 25th Anniversary Edition (3xLP)
- Saba, C0FFEE!
- Shad, Start Anew
- Westside Gunn, Heels Have Eyes 3
Rock/Alt/Indie
- Anastasia Coope, DOT EP
- Andrew Stogel, American Miserable
- Astrachan, Signd
- Black Polish, YUNA
- Blondie, No Exit (Deluxe Reissue)
- bog band, Mocashno Days
- Buffalo Tom, Sleepy Eyed (Expanded Edition)
- Caged Animals, Make Strange Friends
- Chelsea Wolfe, Abyss (10th Anniversary Edition)
- Christian Kjellvander, Ex Voto / The Silent Love
- Chuck Prophet, Night Surfer 10th Anniversary Edition
- Dominie Hooper, In This Body Lives
- Donna Regina, Lilac
- Eleni Drake, Chuck
- Her New Knife, chrome is lullaby:re
- HighSchool, HighSchool
- Holy Sons, Puritan Themes
- JEFF The Brotherhood Meets Blanc du Blanc, Magick Songs In Dub
- Joyeria, Graceful Degradation EP
- Luvcat, Vicious Delicious
- Maneka, bathes and listens
- Micah P. Hinson, The Tomorrow Man
- MONO, Forever Home: Live in Japan with Orchestra PITREZA
- Motörhead, Killed By Deaf – A Punk Tribute To Motörhead
- Night Teacher, Year of the Snake
- NOWHERE2RUN, What Did You Do? EP
- Oklou, choke enough (Deluxe)
- Optic Sink, Lucky Number
- Pictureplane, Sex Distortion
- Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Pogo Rodeo
- Ritual Howls, Ruin
- Ship Says Om, Dream Journal EP
- SKORTS, Incompletement
- Sophie Jamieson, Stitch EP
- TAPE TRASH, EDEN
- The Belair Lip Bombs, Again
- The Cars, Heartbeat City (Deluxe Edition)
- Trivium, Struck Dead EP
- Where to From, Abyss (10th Anniversary Edition)
- Yuuf, Mt. Sava EP
Pop
- Almondmilkhunni, Star Baby EP
- Cat Burns, How to be Human
- Eli, Stage Girl
- Mikayla Geier, Hot Pot!
- Sevdaliza, HEROINA
- Swank Mami, Worldstar EP
- Tommy Richman, WORLDS APART EP
Country/Folk/Americana
- Greensky Bluegrass, XXV
- Alexa Rose, Atmosphere
- Andres Miguel Cervantes, Songs for the Seance
- Bob Dylan, Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window, 1956-1963
- Lydia Luce, Mammoth
- Thea Gilmore, My Own Private Riot 2008-2015
- The Steel Wheels, The Steel Wheels EP
Global
- Joseph Kamaru, Heavy Combination (1966-2007)
- Madala Kunene & Sibusile Xaba, kwaNTU
- Mr Eazi, Maison Rouge EP
- Júlia Colom, Paradís
- The Cavemen., Cavy in the City
Electronic/Out There
- Anushka Chkheidze + Robert Lippok, Uncontrollable Thoughts
- µ-Ziq, 1979
- Bruise Blood, You Run Through The World Like An Open Razor
- Charmaine Lee, Tulpa
- Chino Amobi, Eroica II: Christian Nihilism
- claire rousay, a little death
- Courtney Bailey, In Dream
- CxBxT, .After
- Daniel Avery, Tremor
- Ipek Gorgun, Earthbound
- Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider, A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams
- Maps, Welcome To The Tudor Gate
- Penelope Trappes, A Requiem: Æternum EP
- Richie Culver, I TRUST PAIN
- Sean McCann, The Leopard
- Ship Sket, InitiatriX
- Shlohmo, REPULSOR
- Zach Hill & Lucas Abela, Bag of Max Bag of Cass
- Diamanda Gálas, You Must Be Certain of the Devil (Reissue)
- Diamanda Gálas, De-formation: Second Piano Variations
